Army Seeks Buyer for L.A. Land

The U.S. Army is seeking a developer to purchase 10 acres of prime Westside real estate at the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Federal Avenue, igniting new growth concerns in an area that is already experiencing a surge in development.

Now in use as the West Los Angeles U.S. Army Reserve Center, the parcel is expected to be offered through an online auction in June.

Qualified buyers would submit bids and, as part of the deal, would agree to build replacement facilities at existing government properties elsewhere in Southern California.

The parcel is a small part of several hundred acres of federal land along Wilshire between Brentwood and Westwood that has often been the subject of heated debate.

The government acreage also encompasses both the Federal Building and the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus, which includes the largest chunk of open space left on the Westside.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is evaluating how to redevelop the VA campus and has faced harsh criticism for suggestions that it might allow some commercial development at the site. Separately, the General Services Administration is in the environmental review stage for a new 1-million-square-foot FBI headquarters on the Federal Building site.

The future of the federal land has become something of a rallying cry on the Westside, which is seeing an explosion of new condo projects in Westwood, Century City and Beverly Hills (including on the site of the shuttered Robinsons-May department store).

Los Angeles County has zoned the 10 acres for institutional uses, which could include schools, fire and police stations, hospitals, parks and playgrounds, libraries, and government offices and services.

This could make the property of limited appeal to developers, unless they could obtain a zoning change from the county to allow residential or retail uses.

But Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky vowed to fight any zoning change, saying that local officials were “on the same page” on that issue.

“We now have three different agencies of the federal government working on three different projects, and they don’t appear to be talking,” Yaroslavsky said. “There appears to be no coordination and certainly no master plan.

“It’s almost like the Bush administration is in a race to exploit whatever federal property there is for as much money as they can,” he added.

“Are the skids greased on this thing [the 10-acre parcel]? Have they already picked somebody?”

Yaroslavsky said he planned to travel this week to Washington, D.C., where he would urge the California congressional delegation to push the government to prepare a master plan for the entire area.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss introduced a motion calling on the council to request such a plan from federal officials and expressing opposition to the proposed FBI headquarters.

The 10-acre parcel was originally part of 300 acres conveyed in 1888 by private individuals to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The Army Reserve acquired the 10 acres in two separate transfers, in 1956 and 1976.

The property had been the subject of speculation for many weeks. Then, on April 16, the Army placed a small advertisement in The Times. The headline read: Prime U.S. Government Real Estate Offered for Exchange. Technically, the deal would be a “real property exchange.”

According to the website listed in the advertisement, www.westlarpx.com, the auction will run from June 12 to June 23 with a minimum bid of $1.

As for who would bid, Yaroslavsky said he was at a loss.

“If somebody’s interested, for one thing they’ll want to find out what can we do on it, and I don’t know that they’ll be able to know that,” he said. “All would have to be washed out in the conditional use permit and environmental review process.

“This is the most restrictive zoning that exists in the Westside of L.A.,” he added. “With that in mind, you take your chances.”

Terry Laughlin, a legislative liaison officer for the Army, said any buyer would have to deal with the local zoning issues.

“It is what it is, and we’re not going to do anything to influence it,” Laughlin said. “That’s not the Army’s business.”

Laura Lake, a Westwood activist and co-founder of the Federal Building Coalition, a group fighting the FBI headquarters plan, said the 10 acres should revert to the VA and be used for veterans.

“This is all originally vets’ land, and slowly over time it has been transferred to other agencies,” she said. “The VA should ... hold on to this land because the vets need and deserve it.”

Charles M. Dorman, director of the VA’s Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, said the property “is far too valuable to allow it to be used for commercial development. It could be put to wonderful use for the veterans we care for.”